Examples Of Violation In Law Enforcement

While reviewing the various instances of corruption by Law enforcement officers, it was shocking to see the increasing instances of repetitive and flagrant violations of abuse and corruption by law enforcement. Although it is conceivable that in some instances, such as the excessive use of force, the officer's perception of events at that instance could be skewed and could, therefore, result in an outcome less favorable than intended, however, there are some instances in which the actions of the officer(s) are intentional.

A review of the former Memphis Police officer Arthur Sease illustrates the mindset of the intentional violation of the law for his benefit. Sease, a Memphis Police officer from 2001 until late 2005, when he was initially

charged by the state with 2 counts of robbery and two counts of official oppression of two drug dealers. The victim’s, two drug dealers, were stopped by Sease during a traffic stop and during the course of the stop, relieved of the money on their person and that found in a lockbox and in the vehicle along with “a half-kilogram of cocaine, which Sease placed in the front seat of his unmarked vehicle “(United States of America v. Sease, 2011).
No citation or arrest was issued for the violations and no report was made regarding the stop or the confiscation of the money and drugs recovered.

It was determined that in the course of the commission of this particular crime, Sease, was off duty, yet conducted the (planned) interception of the victims without the authorization of command staff knowledge, while in uniform, in his squad car, and outside of his prescient. The victims reported the incident to officials and filed charges against Sease for the robbery(United States of America v. Sease, 2011). Upon further investigation of Sease and his co-conspirator, consisting of 3 additional M.P.D. officers, a female acquaintance, and his cousin, indictments were issued and the parties were incarcerated having found evidence of 16 additional robberies and one attempted robbery each conducted similarly. “The government also found that Sease and his co-conspirators went to the extreme of kidnapping several drug dealers to get them to set up drug deals so that Sease could commit robberies” (Smith, M., 2009). It is noteworthy to mention that after Sease was terminated, he and a co-conspirator, a Memphis reserve police officer continued their illegal activities while pretending to be police officers, based on the evidence presented at

trial.
Initially indicted on 51 counts, Sease, the only party to not take a plea and receive a lesser sentence, opted for a jury trial and was found guilty of 44 of the initial charges listed in the indictment. In August of 2006, Sease was convicted on forty-four counts 44 counts of civil rights, narcotics, robbery, and firearms offenses to include: 11 counts of robbery and extortion under the color of law interfering with interstate commerce, 9 counts of possession of a controlled substance, 11 counts of deprivation of rights under the color of law, 11 counts of using a firearm in relation to the commission of a drug trafficking crime, 1 Count conspiracy against rights, and 1 Count conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances. For his role in the offenses, Sease was sentenced to life in prison plus a mandatory consecutive 255 years for repeated use of a gun in crimes of violence (United States of America v. Sease, 2011).